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2009-05-11

Anyone Remember Cliff Hanger?

Someone on Twitter reminded me of this, so naturally, I had to post it on the blog. Back during the laserdisc game fad of the early 1980s, there was one title named, "Cliff Hanger." It was fairly obscure, and rarely used at my local arcade. It wasn't until many years later when we realized the game's was really Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro.

I distinctly remember the beginning of the game, which plays through the casino getaway at the beginning of the movie. You had to press the button or move the joystick (or whatever) as Lupin and Jigen hopped the fences in that comical manner. I don't remember seeing any more footage than that, because that was as far as I ever got. And hardly anybody bothered with laserdisc games, anyway. Once we figured out the whole thing was a scam (watch cartoon footage, move a joystick, snore), that was it. We were back with the real videogames.

In any case, here's the flyer for Cliff Hanger. All of the names have been changed, in the tradition of hacking and slashing anime in the '80s. Anime never got any respect back then. Even now, I sometimes wonder just how far we've progressed. It's still stuck in a ghetto by the powers that be; only the names have changed.